In the quiet midnight, a figure appeared out of thin air at the corner of the street. It was an old man, wearing a robe that was incompatible with the surroundings. The old man took out a silver lighter from the pocket of his robe, flicked it open, raised it high, and walked away.
The nearest streetlight went out with a pop, and after a while, the whole street fell into silent darkness again.
The old man looked around to make sure there was no one around, then he walked towards a nearby dirty alley. The smell that came in front of him made him frown slightly. He walked into the alley and quickly stopped.
In front of an old house, I reached out and knocked on the door gently.
After a few seconds, there was a noise from behind the door, and then the door was opened a crack.
"Oh, my God, I was almost frightened by your letter and ran away. What's so important that you have to come to me in person?" Mundungus opened the door and mumbled to him.
The elderly man outside complained.
"We'd better not talk about it here," Dumbledore said with a smile.
"Yes, come in first."
Mundungus quickly took a step back, made way for the door, and invited Dumbledore into the room.
After Dumbledore entered the house, he cautiously stuck his head out the door and looked around to make sure no one was around before closing the door again.
Although Mundungus knew that the possibility of being followed by a tail was low, he could not risk letting others know that he was in contact with Dumbledore, otherwise Death Eaters might come looking for him one day.
"If it's something dangerous, don't come to me." Mundungus looked at Dumbledore uneasily and asked him about his purpose.
"Don't be nervous, I just came to confirm something with you and get some information." Dumbledore motioned for Mundungus to sit down and spoke slowly.
"Confirm what?" Mundungus asked warily.
"You took something from Number 12 Grimmauld Place, didn't you."
"Oh, you mean those rubbish?" Mundungus felt a bulge in his heart and quickly argued: "I asked Sirius and he said he didn't want those rubbish anymore, so I..."
"Don't be nervous, I just want to know if there is a locket among the things you took away." Dumbledore stared into Mundungus's eyes and asked, "Is that thing still there with you?"
"Is it valuable?"
Mundungus' eyes were a little dodgey, not daring to look directly at Dumbledore.
"To a certain extent, it is valuable." Dumbledore said with a smile, "But that locket is also very dangerous."
"Dangerous, dark magic items?" Mundungus muttered, taking a suitcase from the corner of the room, taking out a golden locket and handing it to Dumbledore.
"It shouldn't be. I've also taken it with my own hands. There's nothing wrong with it. I just can't open it, but... to be honest, I think it should be very valuable."
"It's a good thing you didn't open it."
Dumbledore did not reach out to pick it up, but looked up and down at the locket in front of him. Sure enough, it was the same as the Slytherin locket he saw in his memory. The gold cover of the locket also had Slytherin's snake mark.
.
"What will happen if you open it?" Mundungus asked curiously.
"I don't know, something very terrible may happen." Dumbledore couldn't tell what kind of black magic was cast on the locket by Voldemort, but he was sure that the black magic on the Horcrux was very dangerous.
"Something terrible?"
Mundungus was so frightened that his hands shook and the locket fell directly on the table. He stood up in a hurry and took several steps back, trying to stay away from the locket on the table.
Dumbledore looked at the frightened Mundungus, feeling a little funny for some reason, but seemed to remember something, took out a bag of Galleons from his pocket and placed it on the table.
"This is?"
When Dumbledore took out the money bag, Mundungus almost rushed forward and grabbed the bag of money tightly in his hand.
"Your reward."
"Is this for me?"
Mundungus couldn't help but widen his eyes and looked at Dumbledore in disbelief.
"Well, I need your help to find out some information."
"what news."
Mundungus hesitated, fearing what trouble might come.
"As far as I know, someone privately placed a large number of galleons on Albert's head." Dumbledore took out the dragon leather gloves and put them on his hands, picked up the locket and put it into the wooden box he had prepared in advance.
"Oh, I do know about this." Mundungus quickly counted the Galleons in the bag and said casually, "I heard that the Malfoy family offered a reward of 10,000 Galleons for Anderson's life. This guy is in the gray area.
A lot of people are interested in this.”
"But you should know..."
After Mundungus finished counting the galleons and raised his head, he met Dumbledore's wand, and then his eyes fell into brief confusion.
Dumbledore erased Mundungus's memory of the locket. Although the possibility of the other party leaking this information was low, the less people knew about the Horcrux, the better.
"I hope you can help find out how many people are interested in Albert's wanted case." Dumbledore put the wand back into his pocket, and when Mundungus came to his senses, he continued: "I need
Do you know if anyone is planning to do something dirty to Albert to earn this huge reward?"
"I know a little bit about this..."
Mundungus put the money bag into his pocket: "Oh, no problem. But why do you pay attention to this matter?"
"Anyway, please help me investigate this matter first, and I will have other things for you to do later." Dumbledore reminded: "Don't refuse in a hurry, that bag of galleons is a deposit."
Mundungus held his pocket and muttered, "You didn't have the habit of paying before."
"You can think of that bag of galleons as a reward from Albert." Dumbledore said with a smile.
"I see, no wonder you are so generous." Mundungus nodded in understanding, "But it's not the two brats from the Weasley family who came to find me?"
"By the way, what did you ask me to do just now?" Mundungus looked a little confused, as if it was the sequelae of the Forgetting Curse.
"I need you to continue to pay attention to Albert's news. The more detailed the better." Dumbledore thought for a while and said, "At that time, I may need you to help deliver some wrong news to dissuade whether anyone else is eyeing Albert."
"I'm afraid it won't be easy, after all, that Galleons offer is so tempting." Mundungus muttered, "Almost no one can refuse it."
"Don't worry, there are many unrealistic ways to get them to give up." Dumbledore said calmly.
"You seem to care about that Albert?" Mundungus was very curious that Dumbledore actually made a special trip for this purpose.
"Albert has provided a lot of help to the Order of the Phoenix." Dumbledore said calmly, "If possible, we don't want anything to happen to him."
"A lot of help, why didn't I know about it," Mundungus muttered.
"I don't expect you to know much." Dumbledore stood up and said, "This matter must be kept secret, and it is best to find out the situation as soon as possible."
"Okay, if you have anything else to do next, you can come to me," Mundungus promised, patting his chest.
Who doesn't like galleons?
After leaving Mundungus, Dumbledore immediately returned to Hogwarts with the newly acquired Horcrux.
This time, he was not in a hurry to destroy the Horcrux. Instead, he gave himself a cup of milk tea first and waited for his mood to calm down before taking out Gryffindor's sword from the glass box next to it.
"I have to remind you that the last time you played with this thing, you almost lost your life."
The silver-haired old witch in the wall portrait suddenly opened her eyes and spoke as a reminder.
"Don't worry Doris, I'm fully prepared this time." Dumbledore came to the desk with the Sword of Gryffindor.
The portraits that had fallen asleep opened their eyes one after another and looked at Dumbledore who had picked up the sword of Gryffindor. They were all curious about what he wanted to do this time.
"You were so confident last time, and you almost lost your life!" The old man with a goatee next to him said angrily, but he soon received a blow from the cane, grinning in pain.
"I won't make the same mistake twice."
Dumbledore put on his gloves again, took out the pendant and placed it on the table. He picked up the Gryffindor sword lying next to him and prepared to split the pendant in half.
However, the slashed sword missed the target. The long sword cut off the silver chain of the pendant box and hit it hard on the table.
"Are you splitting the table?" Phineas asked with a smile as he dodged the waving wand.
"I see."
Dumbledore ignored the portrait's teasing. He could clearly feel that the soul in the locket was very anxious. Tom's remnant soul obviously felt that the sword of Gryffindor would pose a threat to the locket.
"What the hell is this? I feel like the pendant box moved just now?"
Phineas squeezed into the nearest picture frame, curiously looked at the S snake-shaped mark on the pendant box, and muttered in a low voice, "Could this thing be a relic of Slytherin?"
"This is indeed Slyklin's locket."
"Then what did you do to destroy it?"
"Dumbledore certainly had his reasons for doing that." A shrewd witch waved a very thick wand to silence Phineas.
"Someone cast a terrible dark magic on the locket." Dumbledore explained vaguely.
"So, you plan to destroy it directly?"
"Unfortunately, this is the safest way."
Dumbledore took out his wand and waved it lightly towards Slytherin's locket. The slot on the desk was slightly protruding, and the locket was firmly stuck on the table to ensure that it could never escape again.
"It's too late, Tom."
Dumbledore raised his sword and struck it down hard again.
Before the Sword of Gryffindor fell and completely destroyed the locket, its small golden cover actually popped open with a "click".
The locket was filled with thick darkness, and there was a pair of strange eyes in the darkness, blinking at Dumbledore.
"Albus Dumbledore, I see your desire, your fear, Voldemort already knows your plan, you..."
Immediately afterwards, two heads suddenly appeared in the locket. They were the heads of his sister Ariana and his best friend Grindelwald. They wrapped around Dumbledore frantically, trying to stop him from swinging his sword.
"A hallucination?"
Dumbledore looked up and down at these two grotesque things like soap bubbles. Without giving them a chance to speak, the Gryffindor sword in his hand changed from chopping to stabbing, and pierced directly into the locket. A long sound suddenly sounded in the office.
's scream.
Voldemort's Horcrux was destroyed.
The phantoms of Ariana and Grindelwald completely disappeared.
"It's over!" Dumbledore took a deep breath and murmured, "It's over Tom, it's you who should be afraid this time."
After speaking, he used the tip of his sword to open the small golden cover of the locket, looked at the silk lining with wisps of smoke coming out from inside, and nodded with satisfaction.
However, in the case of the last ring, Dumbledore did not reach out to touch it in a hurry. Instead, he carefully inspected the remains of the pendant to ensure that there was no trace of dark magic on it before picking it up and putting it in the desk drawer.
There was also a notebook with a hole pierced by the basilisk's fang, a Ravenclaw diadem stored in a glass box, and an ugly black gemstone ring. After Dumbledore put the remains of the locket inside,
That's all. The remains of four Horcruxes have been collected.
By the way, he also killed the poisonous snake named Nagini.
They have actually destroyed five Horcruxes now, which is incredible to think about.
If Voldemort created six Horcruxes, then the last one should be Hufflepuff's Golden Cup.
"Thanks to Albert?" Dumbledore sighed softly.
As long as all the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort will be just an ordinary mortal with a damaged soul who can be killed.
Although at that time, killing a wizard like Voldemort still required extraordinary abilities and skills, Dumbledore was not worried... What worried him was that if he wanted to completely kill Voldemort, he would have to destroy the small patch on Harry's forehead.
A fragment of the soul that even Voldemort was unaware of.
That means Harry must die.
This is undoubtedly a cruel fact that is unacceptable, but if you want to completely eliminate Voldemort, this matter cannot be avoided.
"How should I tell him this?" Dumbledore murmured. He needed to tell Harry the truth at the most appropriate time.
However, it is undoubtedly very difficult for a person to die heroically. This requires not only extraordinary courage and courage, but also the courage to face death.
Dumbledore has seen too many brave people cower in the face of death. He must give Harry the courage to face death at the most critical moment.
"what can we do about it?"
Dumbledore's eyes fell on the Resurrection Stone in the drawer and murmured: "Maybe I should write a will."
"I thought you had written the will a long time ago?" Phineas said in surprise when Dumbledore put the sword back in the glass cabinet.
"Yes, the will has indeed been written, but some parts need to be revised."
Dumbledore sat back at his desk, took a piece of parchment from the side, wrote something on it, folded the paper and handed it to Phoenix Fawkes.
"Give this to him."
Fox gave a slight chirp and disappeared with the note.
After Fawkes left, Dumbledore picked up his quill and revised his will. He planned to leave the Resurrection Stone to Harry through his will. This chapter has been completed!